Our Chartered Practitioner accreditation is a benchmark for those working at a senior level and a 'gold standard' to which all public relations practitioners should strive to reach.

Throughout the year, our President, Stephen Waddington MCIPR, is going to blog interviews with practitioners who have become Chartered Practitioners to understand their motivation and perspective on the profession.

Here's the first interview, with Ben Verinder, taken from Stephen's blog. Ben's paper, submitted as part of his application for accreditation, explored the benefit of applying psychological theory to public relations practice.

Who are you and what's your day job?

I'm the Managing Director of Chalkstream Communications, an agency specialising in reputation and communications research. I also consult in the publishing, education and technology sectors and train in reputation leadership and a variety of PR disciplines.

What's the greatest opportunity for the public relations profession?

To actually become a profession – through the usual mechanisms of specialist training, professional association, a code of conduct and high standards of work – until client expectations of service and expertise equate to a license to practice. So says an incurable optimist.

Why did you apply for Chartered PR Practitioner accreditation?

I wanted to challenge myself. Plus it was a good excuse to dust off the text books and revisit the theoretical elements that underpin practice.